iPad reviewers still miss the point

[WavingReds]

Just like the original cell phone, it was merely to make calls but look at it now, it has replaced our walkman, discman, mp3 players, calculator, watch, calender, notepad, tv guide, gaming, dictionary books, photo albums and of course slowly but surely point and shoot cameras too, the list goes on, you can even use some as a weapon.

As technology evolves so do the OSs that governs them. I get where MS is going the Surface Pro and other Windows 8 Tablet. The ones that dismiss it really do miss the point in it's true end game purpose.

The real question is how many devices do you want to own / carry around / use / can afford? (Not everyone is rich to afford 2-5 devices, the poor / middle class out number the rich in every country)

If one device can do all then why not get that.

One device to rule them. One device to find them. One device to bring them all and in the darkness bind them! (lol sorry couldn't help it)

I do have an iPad 2, it's sitting on the coffee table as a paper weight. Saving up for Surface Pro 2, 3 or 4 since my laptop is a power house at this time.

 

[HeyCori]

The only point of a tablet is to make it more versatile, more powerful and more useful. I have a Surface RT as well as several other computers. The Surface RT has become my main device for everyday computer use. Thanks to expandable memory, USB slot, HDMI out and peripheral support (e.g. printers) I can use my Surface RT just like my other computers, even outputting to a second monitor when I want to. And when I'm not using it like a traditional desktop I can still use it like a tablet. There's only a handful of things that I still need my other computers for like photo and video editing. However, a Surface Pro would allow me to do all those things and more. I simply chose to go the RT route because it better suited my need. As already mentioned, smartphones helped to cure multi-device syndrome. Tablets are headed in that same direction. Heck, thanks to Windows 8, tablets are already there. For the first time people can buy a tablet and use it as their only computer, not just their media consumption device.

 

[TechBlogTv]

Tech writers embrace the iPad because consumers do. iPads make up 40% of all tablets shipped, twice as many as any other manufacturer. While Android leads iOS in market share, those numbers include the "subsidized" Amazon Kindle, plus a lot of cheap Android tablets. Samsung, Asus, and Amazon make up 27%, btw...

Consumers have yet to demand a more powerful tablet. To date, a $500 iPad or a $200 Android tablet does what most consumers want. Microsoft has failed to demonstrate any advantage a Windows Tablet offers to the consumer. All a consumer knows is that many of their favorite apps, and almost none of their niche apps are available on Windows Tablets. The consumers also known that the cheap Windows Tablets are slow-ish and the fast Windows Tablets are too expensive.

I'm not a Windows Tablet hater. I blog about Windows Tablets so I want the platform the succeed. Up to now, the combination of developer support, performance, and price of Windows Tablets just isn't where it needs to be in order for the mainstream to embrace the platform. Hopefully the next crop of tablets will change that.

 

[falconrap]

I'll throw my 2 cents in. What will eventually happen, as Windows tablets become smaller, more powerful, and get the battery life up, they will start to take share away from iPads, and the move will exponentially accelerate. Why? Because Windows tablets have the ability to become a smaller, lighter, more portable, yet still as capable, laptop replacement for most consumers. Once these tablets are as powerful as most consumer laptops, people will buy these and hook them up to a dock so they can have the full desktop PC experience when they need it, and the ability to pull it off the dock and go read a book on the couch, or head out the door and get info on the go. For the foreseeable future iPads won't be able to do that.

Essentially, once Windows tablets no longer have any compromises - i.e. they can replace desktops and laptops for most people - they will quickly dominate. This is the direction MS is headed in, and they have a solid plan. There will still be a large contingent of people, such as myself, that will need power that can't fit into a tablet, so a PC will continue to sit at their desks, but the rest just need a tablet on par with what is on their desks right now and this will become the thing to get.

 

[CHIP72]

But that's not the point they're making. The writers are claiming that the iPad is the best way to do a tablet. My counterpoint is that a tablet that can to both consumption AND creation without the handicaps normally associated with that ie. Battery life, lack of processing power and form factor, is going to be superior.

A tablet running Intel's next gen chips with a full computer OS will have that capability. IPads don't.

Maybe future applications won't need as much power or need Intel chips.

I do agree with your first part though - IMO, a tablet is a niche device, and niche devices, if they are going to have broader adoption long-term, need to either 1) broaden their niche or 2) have low costs. I think what we'll see and in fact are already starting to see is tablets split into two categories - those that are convertible tablets/laptops, have larger screens, and potentially could replace a laptop on the high end (i.e. the tablets that are broadening their niche) and those that are smaller, cheaper, and allow quick internet access on the low end. IMO, most people don't want to pay $500 for a niche device when another device can do the job almost as well and the niche device is heavily compromised when performing certain tasks.

I think Apple's thinking is based on the fact that the U.S. and global demographic is getting older and will want and need a larger screen device that is simple to use. On the flip side, older people, many of whom are retired, don't have as much income, so price still remains a critical factor in purchasing decisions.

The one wild-card here is chromebooks. The non-Pixel chromebooks combine most of the functionality of a laptop (i.e. a physical keyboard for easier content entry) with the low cost of a small tablet. It is also very easy to use and isn't excessively large or heavy. I have multiple tablets (among Android OS, Blackberry Tablet OS, and webOS; two are 10" and one is 7") and also a chromebook, and I strongly, strongly prefer the chromebook. The chromebook is also the most convenient computer device I have for quickly getting on the internet. I'm not going to lie - I really like my Samsung Chromebook XE303 (Series 3), and the device only cost $250.

 

[Rico]

Maybe future applications won't need as much power or need Intel chips.

We're heading to a world where tablets are modern thin clients. More apps will be leverage the cloud for backend processing, and there'll be a small group of users who remote into their desktops at home to get things done. The idea of a more or less "full" version of Photoshop or Lightroom that leverages cloud computing to perform processor-intensive operations is extremely exciting to me.

 

[TechBlogTv]

I would love to implement my own personal cloud and have my tablets leverage the processing on my home server...